Don't quit the bananas

Like the chimp in the cartoon I shall not be too ambitious with my aspirations for the New Year. In fact my main wish is to not take on any more responsibilities and to try and get more people to help with some of the things that I am involved with already. I think that it is better to be realistic about what I can achieve and to do that properly - rather than spread myself too thin and let people down. One aspiration that I'm already working on is to get more people to help on the Parish Council. There are elections in May for many Norfolk Councils and I'm hoping that people will take the opportunity to get involved in the local decision making process. Many Parish/Town council seats are never contested at an election - which is a wasted opportunity to change things for the better.

I will be trying again with a failed 2010 aspiration which was to grow more food over the winter. Jane gave me some seeds for winter leaf crops but the plants had barely started to grow when they got hit by the coldest winter on record - and slugs appeared from nowhere to attack the seedlings in the greenhouse. Which makes you appreciate how hard it is to survive a northern winter if you have to rely only on local produce.

I am famed for my love of bananas and usually eat one every day so the cartoon reminded me to take a look at the book that Elena blogged about earlier in the year. Fortunately bananas have a low CO2 footprint at 80gm/banana - so my banana addiction only accounts for .3% of my 10tonnes CO2/yr allowance. Bananas are grown in the open and need very little packaging, which I greatly appreciate - though there are problems with pesticide use and deforestation so I shall learn more about where my bananas are coming from.

Best wishes for the New Year and may you achieve all that you aspire to!


Cartoon from Science Blogs